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The International Cricket Council defended its eligibility rules today as Canada took to the field for the Americas Championship with just two homegrown players in the squad.

The Canadian team - stuffed with former Pakistani, Sri Lanka and Indian born players - is one of the favourites to win the six-team tournament in Florida.

But with John Davision and Ian Billcilff no longer in the squad they are now almost wholly reliant on overseas players. Only Zubin Surkari and Jason Sandher were born in Canada.

The majority of the squad have Canadian nationality and others qualify under residency rules but the situation highlights a trend within Associate cricket that some critics feel is at odds with the ICC's remit to expand the game globally.

Only Bermuda and Kenya, among the top six, can claim to have fully homegrown teams.

The U.S. has fielded players who have also played for other countries - the prime example being Guyanan Lennox Cush, who was a reserve for the Stanford All Stars in their 20-20 clash with England.

This has led some, including former Scotland player Paul Hoffman, ironically an Aussie, to call for a change in the eligibility criteria.

Hoffman was quoted in the Scottish Sunday Mail proposing a quota system restricting each team to two players who had lived outside the country in the last 15 years.

But ICC global development manager Matthew Kennedy said he felt the sport's current eligibility rules were sufficient and protected the interests of the game at all levels. He said they were almost identical to those used by other sports - particularly Rugby Union.

Kennedy said if players had lived in a country for seven years or had nationality status in that country then they were eligible to play.

Additionally each associate nation is allowed to field two players who have been in the country for a minimum of four years.

"With the amount of migration around the world there are going to be players representing a country, who weren't born there. Cricket in Asia is hugely popular and a huge number of people from that region have moved all over the world.

"If you look at the Canadian team they might not have been born in Canada but the majority of them are Canadian nationals or long term residents and are certainly qualified under our rules."

He insisted that international squads faced rigorous checks to ensure they did not skirt the eligibility rules and countries who stepped outside the guidelines were harshly dealt with.

A recent article on Bermudian website www.islandstats.com suggested that Rizwan Cheema, who burst on to the scene with successive fifties against Bermuda and West Indies should not have been playing for Canada. But interviews with Cheema indicate that he has been in the country for six years and would therefore qualify under the residency criteria.

Kennedy added that the ICC had not had any reports of Canada fielding ineligible players but would investigate any that they received.

Crime and punishment

"We had one case where Greece were found to have given false information and they were dealt with quite severely.

"They were relegated to the bottom tier of international cricket and they lost their financial support.

"It's a very rigorous process but if any country is aware of allegations that another country is playing ineligible players then we encourage them to contact us and we will investigate."

He added that countries like Guyana and Antigua, which are not ICC members, were not covered by the council's rules and games involving these countries were irrelevant to a player's eligibility to represent an ICC member.

One concern among critics of the current system is that it is much easier to get nationality in some countries (eg Ireland) than in others (eg Bermuda, where it is impossible)

But Kennedy said that was the reason for creating the 'seven-year rule'.

Under the ICC guidelines any player that has been living in a country for seven years is granted a kind of 'sporting nationality' status, where they are considered a national of that country for the purposes of sporting competition.

He added that the ICC did not think any countries were specifically recruiting overseas talent for their squads.

He added: "I can't think of one example of someone in the developing world who has moved somewhere with a view to waiting for several years and then becoming an international cricketer."[[In-content Ad]]

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